@ThreadSafe javadoc annotation
June 30th, 2008
Recently I came across this line of code:
private static final SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("hh:mm a");
Unfortunately, this code belongs to a class whose instances will be used by multiple threads. Even though the API documentation for SimpleDateFormat mentions it being not thread safe, somehow it failed to get the developers attention.
As I got to think more about this, a @ThreadSafe JavaDoc element might be useful for API writers to convey their intent more clearly. Perhaps the generated JavaDoc for a thread safe class can use a different color or font making the distinction more visual.